157
150
cowshed, and the methods of milking, feeding and management generally. The veterinary surgeons undertaking this work are employed by the Copenhagen dairy companies which receive the milk, and send a certificate to the company concerned on the completion of every inspection. The dairy company is obliged to produce a certificate of inspection every month for each of the farms from which it receives supplies to the health committee for Copenhagen. In this way it is secured that no milk reaches Copenhagen The cost of this from cows which have not been adequately supervised. supervision is borne immediately by the distributing companies and is ultimately added to the retail cost of milk. In addition to these measures, the health committee also undertake the examination of milk shops in the city and the sampling of milk sold therefrom. It does not appear that this sampling is principally concerned with the discovery of tuberculous milk and milk infected with other organisms likely to be injurious to human health.
24. Measures have been taken in Denmark against the spread of bovine tuberculosis for many years. But the part played by the government has not been very great. The method of eradication most frequently adopted is that put forward by Professor Bang, formerly chief of the civil veterinary service in Denmark. Under this scheme animals with clinical symptoms of tuberculosis are destroyed and calves are separated from the infected herd at birth and reared in isolation on pasteurised milk. These calves, as they reach maturity, are not drafted into the original herd, but form a separate herd, occupying separate buildings and pastures. Ultimately, the herd built up from uninfected young stock replaces the old infected herd entirely. The period during which a tuberculosis-free herd is being built up may be shortened by dividing the original herd into two sections, namely, reactors to the tuberculin test and non-reactors. There is, however, always the danger that non-reactors at the first test may react at subsequent tests.
25. The measures which have been taken by the government include the constitution of a fund, to which it contributes 100,000 crowns annually, for defraying the expenses of farmers who have their herds tested with tuberculin. Farmers can benefit from this fund if they undertake effectively to separate reactors to the test from non-reactors. The Danish law also requires that clinical cases of bovine tuberculosis should be slaughtered, subject to compensation, and that skimmed milk and butter milk should be heated to 80° C. before being returned to farms for feeding to stock. These measures, though they seem to have been successful in saving Denmark from that increase in the incidence of bovine tuberculosis which has been apparent in other countries since the beginning of this century, did not excite much enthusiasm among the farming community.
In recent years, however, there has been a definite development of interest in the eradication of tuberculosis. This has been stimulated in part by the activities of the co-operative dairies, in part by the formation of tuberculosis associations among the farmers themselves. These private activities have been useful in the same way as the area scheme in the United States and Canada, which we have already described. Official data on the success of the present move- ment are not available, but it is generally believed that it has been considerable. The outstanding example of the success of Bang's system is to be found on the island of Bornholm in the Baltic, where infection was never very heavy. As the result of the activities of the twenty dairies buying milk in the island, it has been reduced to such an extent that in 1928, out of the 3,797 herds supplying milk, 3,171 were free from tuberculosis.
(v) State-assisted associations in the Netherlands for the reduction of
tuberculosis.
26. Attempts are being made in the Netherlands to eradicate bovine tuberculosis through the action of voluntary associations of farmers. These associations in many cases receive assistance from government and provincial funds. Associations which do not receive such assistance generally make
151
rather less exacting demands upon their members than are laid down as the condition of receiving government support. Associations receiving government support must comply with the following conditions:-
(a) All cattle belonging to the participating member must be submitted at least once a year to a veterinary examination and treatment with tuberculin. The latter must be made according to rules to be defined by the director of the veterinary service.
(b) Participating members are bound to promote the breeding of their
young cattle, free of tuberculosis.
(c) Animals, which, as a result of the veterinary examination, appear to be suffering from, or which are seriously suspected to be suffering from, open tuberculosis, must be destroyed without delay by the association in co-operation with the inspector of the veterinary service.
(d) Animals belonging to participating members which, as a result of the veterinary inspection, defined under section (a) of this clause, show a positive reaction on the tuberculin treatment, must, with the assistance of the association, be marked as soon as possible, in accordance with the rules to be laid down by the director of the veterinary service.
The government, on its part, pays to the association a sum of 25 florins for each animal with open tuberculosis which is promptly slaughtered. In addition, some provincial governments contribute a further 25 florins under this heading. The government also contributes towards the cost of inspection the sum of half a florin for each animal inspected, provides free supplies of tuberculin for testing and assists in the testing of samples of milk, saliva or fæces for the presence of tubercle bacilli.
27. About 150,000 animals have been brought within government-assisted schemes. There is a certain amount of prejudice against the scheme arising from the provision that all reacting animals must be marked. On the other hand, the authorities attach considerable importance to this provision.
(vi) The control of bovine tuberculosis in Germany.
28. In Germany reliance is placed upon the elimination of the open cases of tuberculosis disclosed by a clinical examination and the reacting of calves in isolation as the means of preventing the spread of bovine tuberculosis. Farmers willing to adopt these methods join an association for this purpose and undertake to submit their herds to a periodic examination, for the cost of which they are responsible, and to submit samples of their milk for examination at a state institution. Cows discovered to be suffering from open tuberculosis are slaughtered and compensation is paid to the owner out of funds contributed by all members of the association in proportion to the number of cattle owned. About 15 per cent. of the cattle population is subject to the scheme. The increasing incidence of tuberculosis in herds not under control is said to prevent any improvement in the incidence of tuberculosis attributable to the scheme from being reflected in statistics such as those of the percentage of tuberculous animals discovered on slaughter. But even in herds subject to the scheme, no very high degree of success is claimed. For example, in one memorandum on the subject which we received, it is concluded that "the scheme is apt to keep losses on account of tuberculosis within limits which can be borne economically."
29.
(vii) The control of bovine tuberculosis in Norway,
Bovine tuberculosis is less common in Norway than in most European countries. Of 351,119 animals examined with tuberculin in the early part of this century, 5-57 per cent. reacted. Infection was found to be concentrated in certain districts, particularly in the eastern parts of Norway.
158